


Destiny? No Thanks

by PatchworkIdeas



Series: GatheringFiKi's 12 Days of Christmas 2020 [17]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Humor, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28267533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchworkIdeas/pseuds/PatchworkIdeas
Summary: Fili and Kili had vowed to stay far away from piles of gold or positions of power after the Goldsickness Disaster. They had learned that lesson.Destiny, unfortunately, had not.
Relationships: Fíli/Kíli (Tolkien)
Series: GatheringFiKi's 12 Days of Christmas 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2054739
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9
Collections: GatheringFiKi - 12 Days Of Christmas 2020





	Destiny? No Thanks

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by GatheringFiKi's gorgeous Photoset!
> 
> Shown here with permission, and the original post can be found on [Tumblr.](https://gatheringfiki.tumblr.com/post/638320695780294656/12-days-of-christmas-2020-day-11-bonus-fullsize)

* * *

The land was frozen solid.

This wasn’t a harsh winter, or an unusually strong cold weather front. The land was frozen through to its core, the tree branches nothing but icy traps, ready to fall on their heads with the slightest provocation. The land itself felt dead. Trapped. Waiting for something that wouldn’t come.

Fili knew what it was waiting for long before they found that inexplicable street lamp in the middle of nowhere. This wasn’t the first time this happened after all.

“We could still go back. Maybe try the south? Whatever is lurking for us there should at least be warmer.”

Lurking. That was a good way of calling what destiny had been doing ever since they left that blasted mountain behind for Dain to rule. Thorin had survived that battle too, but it had been all too clear that their line couldn’t be trusted with ruling there.

Which didn’t stop destiny from trying to get them ruling somewhere else. It didn’t seem to understand that they had been glad to leave that life behind. To be free of politics and wars, free to be themselves and go where ever the wind blew them.

Which was usual one mess after the other.

“We probably should. I’m sure someone is going to fix this somehow. And finding anything to hunt in this weather is going to be impossible anyway.”

And right on time, suddenly but not unexpected, a horned head popped out of the brush. The half man, half goat - because of course, why not, not the strangest thing they had seen by now - ushered them along into his warm home, looking fearfully around all the time. The food was good at least, though the story about Witch Queens and talking Lions and hope for a better future was less so.

Kili dropped his head onto the table once their meal was done, low-key whines coming from his throat throughout the story. Fili felt with him, all too aware that escape was pretty much out of the question now. Another kingdom to save and rule and protect. Hurrah. 

Still, information was always good to have, and from what it sounded like that Queen had one fatal flaw…

-

Kili’s feet were frozen through, and he knew he needed to look weak and controllable and all, but why did that mean he couldn’t have _shoes_?! He was pretty sure this was Fili’s idea of a prank, but Kili had fallen asleep halfway through their planning, still exhausted from running from that last king that had tried to throw his daughters at him. He had been glad growing up that he wouldn’t have to take the throne. That definitively hadn’t changed after seeing the mess most kingdoms seemed to be.  
But missing the planning did mean he only knew his own parts to play, hastily explained this morning, aware that these things usually happened pretty fast.

And like expected, he heard something big moving about just a short while after he started stumbling through the thicket. He suppressed the instinct that had him grasping for arrows that weren’t there, knowing that Fili was out there, ready, and he was as protected as could be, even unarmored and unarmed as he was.

It was a woman. Her carriage was as as big as she was lithe, and almost blended into the icy surrounding with how blindingly white it all was. Her smile seemed kind only to someone who had never seen a predator seeing an easy meal, and the fingers that beckoned him to join her might have been elegant if they hadn’t reminded Kili so much of a spider spinning her web.

He suppressed his shudder, put on a shaky smile, and tried to portray awe, not terror. It didn’t really matter, he supposed, beings like that thrived on both.

“What is a sweet, innocent child like you doing so far in my forest? Did you get lost?”  
The games began, and Kili just hoped that his brother would hurry up before he couldn’t wiggle his way out of her cursed sweets anymore.

-

The end had been quick, brutal, and unexpected. Fili had somehow managed to climb one of the frozen trees without breaking it and had dropped down on them. Predators so rarely looked up. The boom of her power fleeing her form threw both of them away, but the damage had already been done. Kili grimaced at the unnaturally cold blood all over him, cursing loudly as he tried to get it off. At least he wouldn’t have to clean it out of his armor. 

They both made sure that the monster in human form - for that had surely not been human, or any other race they knew of, not with the way it died - was truly dead, before looking through the carriage for anything useful. Waste not, want not after all, and their “official” rewards usually included seats of power that neither of them wanted or had any use for.

The snow was already starting to melt when they deemed the carriage picked clean, with an enchanted set of bow and arrow being a particularly fine find. Hearing the commotion as people realized that the witch was indeed dead, they quickly readied the horses - way too big for them normally, but they would do for now - collected Kili’s stuff from it’s hiding place and galloped east, away from another destiny they had no intention of fulfilling. 

It had nothing to offer them they hadn’t already found in each other.


End file.
